The neck joints of solid-body electric guitars have conventionally been made by screws, although glued joints ("set necks") have also been used. Advantages of the screw-connected neck joints of solid-body electric guitars include economy of production, and ease of alignment of the neck relative to the center line of the guitar body. Relative to the former of these factors, it is emphasized that the economy relates to the joint itself, not to the neck at such. (The neck of an electric guitar is a complex, precision component the proper construction of which is crucial to good guitar playing.) Relative to the latter of the stated factors, if the neck was somewhat out of alignment relative to the body, the screws could be loosened somewhat and the neck slightly shifted in order to achieve the desired alignment.
Screw-connected neck joints of solid-body electric guitars have certain disadvantages. The neck-body connection in a screwed-joint guitar is not as rigid as in a guitar where the joint is permanently made by adhesive. This affects the sustain or dwell of the strings. Another disadvantage is that the protuberance on the guitar body, and which underlies the neck pocket, conventionally has a relatively square-cornered outer end that tends to block the hand of the guitarist when he or she seeks to put his or her fingers on the frets that are relatively close to the bridge. It is desirable to have the body region that underlies the inner end of the neck be rounded and tapered, so that the musician can readily and comfortably move his or her hand close to the bridge.
Another consideration relative to screw-connected necks for solid-body electric guitars is that the joint regions where the necks first reach the protuberances on the bodies, are often not aesthetically pleasing, smooth or beautiful. It is important that continuity of surfaces, absence of cracks, smoothness, etc., be achieved everywhere on each guitar--not excluding the indicated region.
Because of the above-stated disadvantages of screw-connected necks, it is desired by many that the neck joints be made by using adhesive. However, as a practical matter, it is difficult to provide a glued neck joint in a solid-body electric guitar that will reliably, guitar after guitar, cause the center line of the neck to be in precise alignment with the center line of the guitar body. Unlike screw-connected necks, it is not possible to make minor adjustments in neck alignment after the strings are mounted on the guitar. To the contrary, the neck must be properly aligned with the body and permanently secured to it, with assurance that when the strings are eventually mounted they will be exactly where they should be relative to the neck, and vice versa. To state but one example, it would be unsatisfactory if the string adjacent one edge of the neck were closer to such edge than is the string adjacent the other edge of the neck. This would not only look terrible, but would not perform at all satisfactorily, one example being that bending of the strings would be affected.